All the latest about the Park–straight from the Executive Director’s desk…
Dave’s Blog
Our First Life Scout Project.
July 19, 2010On Friday(July 16th), Scout Aaron Stansell came out to Red Mountain Park to complete his scouting Life Project. He and three friends worked on the new folds trail extension, which will run from the Smythe trail over to the Ridge Road Jeep trail. They performed their work well, benching 150 feet of trail to near the top of the first hill on the trail. Enjoy the photos below, both taken by Jeff Newman, and have a wonderful…
Immodest Proposals, Birmingham Weekly (check out the paragraph in bold)
July 9, 2010Immodest proposals
It’s my last day as managing editor, so I decided to write whatever the hell I want. The following proposals, I believe, could dramatically improve this city of my birth, this city that I love (and hate… natives will understand my schizophrenia). Some of the proposals are wackier than others. Some are not at all
…
ABC 33/40 TONIGHT!
July 8, 2010We got a wonderful call this morning about the two cemeteries that the park has acquired–they are a tremendous piece of park and Birmingham history, so we are glad they have received some attention. Please be sure to tune in tonight at 5:00 on Channel 33/40. You will see our Park Ranger along with Oral History Participant Ike Maston and our new intern, Drew. Ike has family buried in the Mt.…
Another Eagle Project Completed
June 23, 2010Congratulations to Nick, who just wrapped up his eagle project. He presented the park with an incredible keepsake from his project. He worked on the Mt. Olive cemetery, and in the process discovered this beautiful headstone that he etched and framed for our office.
Thanks, Nick!
weekend full of eagles.
June 14, 2010My Saturday was spent helping in 3 Eagle Scout Projects on the park. I was so impressed with the work put forth by each of these soon-to-be eagles. Check out their impressive work below: a bridge demolition at the No. 13 site, a bridge being built on the Redding trail, and a park video project…
New Views…
June 11, 2010of the amazing Redding Hoist House, taken by Staffer Jeff Newman. The heavy clearing around the site have provided views that haven’t been seen since about 1971. Enjoy.
Ruffner Mountain Nature Center
June 1, 2010You may have seen the 50 Great Ways to Love Our Community, a list put on by The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. It was a series to celebrate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary and a new list for this year and next has begun, starting with a salute to Ruffner Mountain Nature Center. I hope everyone will take a quick look at these words from The Community Foundation:
With a new executive director,…
3 Parks, 3 Directors, 1 hike to celebrate our progress….
May 19, 2010It feels good to be part of Birmingham’s 3 Parks Initiative, and even better to share the charge of building and growing these places with people like Katherine and Robbie. We had some fun together on Friday out at the park, see the photo below.
Congratulations to Ruffner for their beautiful facilities and to Railroad Park as they near completion–Birmingham has much to be excited about…
“If we don’t get it now, it’ll be lost forever.”
May 11, 2010These are the words ore miner Willie Cammack used to tell us how he felt about preserving Birmingham’s red mountain history. Willie was an Ishkooda miner who visited the No.14 slope where he worked on February 19, 2010. Our Park Ranger captured some of what he had to say about Red Mountain Park’s past, present, and future. Enjoy:
Pesky Privet
May 4, 2010We have begun the process of knocking out some of the invasive plants at Red Mountain Park and finally found just the tool we need!
Clearing at No.13
April 26, 2010Take a quick look at some of the work being done to clear the area around the No. 13 portal. Cool stuff.
What would we do without them?
April 19, 2010This week’s blog is dedicated to our dedicated volunteers, the Friends of Red Mountain Park! We had a great opportunity to thank them on Friday night, so that’s exactly what we did. And they thanked one another with some great awards. It all went down at our oral history exhibit at the Lite Box Gallery–if you still haven’t checked it out, you must go soon. Last day is Saturday! (W,…
Spring in the Park
April 6, 2010Take a look at the photo Jeff captured at the park over the weekend….
A Must-See.
March 30, 2010Check out our new press release to see what we’ve been working on for April-
What: For the first time ever the Red Mountain Park Greenway Commission will open an Archives Exhibit showcasing artifacts, photographs and oral history stories from miners whose stories have been captured to inform the public of the rich history that made Birmingham the Magic City. The Red Mountain Park mines closed in 1969, yet…
Have you made a hike yet?
March 15, 2010This weekend will be our next-to-last public tour for the Spring season, so we hope to have a great turnout this weekend. The hike will be on Sunday, March 21st at 2:00 p.m. in the Frankfurt Drive Cul-de-sac. Bring your family, friends, and four-legged pals out with you and enjoy a great afternoon in the place that will be your future Red Mountain Park. I can’t wait to see you there!…
major THANKS.
March 5, 2010We would like to thank Action Environmental for donating some of their time and attention toward the Mt. Olive cemetery this week. Jeff Newman captured a great photo of the team after they finished clearing a large portion of the land–their job was to get rid of the privet on the property, and what a great job they did.
So this week’s blog goes out to the folks at Action–thank you from…
Impressed.
February 26, 2010Birmingham Southern. Miles. UAB. Lawson State. Samford. Montevallo.
I am impressed with the overwhelming opportunities this area provides through these institutions. I am excited about the relationships the park project will create with each of these institutions and some of these relationships have already taken their roots–for example, UAB with our oral history project. There are other departments within different schools that we are continuing to reach out to: history, athletics, digital community studies, technology, engineering….
I plan to make…
Newest Staff Addition
February 16, 2010The park staff has grown with the addition of a part time maintenance position. Jeff Newman has been hired to work on maintaining our park trails–he has done an incredible job creating the trails that allow for our monthly public tours. He’s had a cold past couple of days out on the property, but did seem to make the most of the weather in building a helper for cutting down some…
Great Weekend with a Camp Kid
February 8, 2010Paul Stokes came to pay us a visit all the way from Texarkana, Texas. He grew up in the Ishkooda mining camp and has incredible memories of his life as a Red Mountain camp kid. We were able to listen to his stories and pick his brain about life on the mountain. If was a fun-filled, educational weekend and we are grateful for his visit.
Since his visit last week, we…